1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inter-processor exclusive control apparatus for a multiprocessor system, and more particularly, to an inter-processor exclusive control apparatus (including processors) for carrying out exclusive control of executable unit processes in a multiprocessor system employing a plurality of processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
To improve a processing speed, some computer systems employ a plurality of processors. These multiprocessor systems must carry out exclusive control so that a resource may be shared by processes executed by a plurality of processors, or must arrange that a process is exclusively executed apart from other processes.
To carry out the exclusive control, the multiprocessor systems usually employ an exclusive control server for centrally controlling exclusive requests from executable unit processes, or a spin lock method (which is also called a busy waiting method) that is a simple exclusive control facility. The problems with these conventional techniques will be explained later.
Multiprocessor systems require a high-speed exclusive control facility. To improve the reliability of the systems, the systems particularly require an exclusive control facility that is capable of continuously executing processes even if some of the processors fail.